American Vale at Ferrin Gallery
Pittsfield, MA. June 26 - August 1, 2010

With American Vale, Susan Mikula continues the story first seen in American Device — finding the unromanticized, present, physical beauty of industrial sites and the landscapes they shape.

While American Device depicted working plants on the arid coasts of southern California and the Texas Gulf, American Vale was shot in the valley between the Berkshire and Taconic mountain ranges, in the city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, which grew on the spine of the massive industrial facilities of the General Electric Corporation. Pittsfield’s G.E. facilities are fast-disappearing: some of the buildings Mikula shot for this show were torn down and the rubble hauled away before the last photos were taken. Others in the show are still active and thriving — though they survive on the fragile entrepreneurial cusp that is American manufacturing today.

The photographs strip away detail and soften edges, only to better reveal the underlying and essential strength and form of these massive installations. Shot exclusively with Polaroid cameras and, of necessity, expired film, and working only with available light, Mikula manually controls exposures to create painterly, almost impressionistic imagery. The resulting images are neither cropped nor retouched as they travel from camera to print.

Using cameras and films made by a now defunct former giant of American industrial innovation further connects the subject of American Vale and this body of work. Even as remnants of the old Polaroid Corporation are auctioned off piecemeal to satisfy creditors, the products of their industry continue, in Mikula’s hands, to produce works of power and substance.

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MEDIA CONTACT
Michael Kusek at communication angle
413.575.1435
michael@communicationangle.com

FERRIN GALLERY
413.442.1622
FerrinGallery.com

American Vale: Recent Photographs

Ferrin Gallery
437 North Street, Pittsfield, MA — 413.442.1622
Opening Reception: June 26, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Exhibition: June 26 - August 1, 2010

Shipping Now:

“Susan Mikula, Photographs, 2008” is available now from Luxxus Press. 80 pages, 27 full-color plates: Order Online.

ON NOW:
Susan Mikula at
George Lawson Gallery
NEW YORK
encore selections from gallery artists
June 3 – July 10, 2010

Susan Mikula at
WILLIAM BACZEK FINE ARTS
The 2010 Landscape Exhibition
April 21 - May 30, 2010

9 Portraits.

Nine color portraits printed on nine-foot
swaths of industrial mesh.
~ view the portraits ~

bearings, October 2009
~ view bearings images ~